Clinton: the only man I fear is Roy

FIRST meetings with Roy Keane are not easily forgotten. Clinton Morrison was a cocky 22-year-old when he first strode into the Ireland training camp in 2001, to be greeted in the entrance hall by a stony-faced Keane.

The Crystal Palace forward’s south London swagger evaporated in a nanosecond, replaced by an emotion he had never felt before.

“I was scared,” he recalled. “He’s definitely the best player I have ever played with but he’s also the only person in football who has made me feel afraid.

“I have quite a big gob and Roy doesn’t like people like that so I was just praying that I wasn’t on the same team as him in the five-a-side match that day.”

Over five years have passed since, with Morrison winning his former captain’s respect and admiration in the interim, but the wariness remains. The Tooting-born striker is not the sort of man to be easily cowed but Keane still engenders that mix of awe and trepidation which the Corkman’s former Manchester United colleagues know only too well.

Morrison will feel it acutely again tonight when Keane, as manager, brings Sunderland to Selhurst Park. A humdrum Championship fixture is a far cry from a teeming, seething Lansdowne Road, but the intensity and cast-iron will which were Keane’s hallmarks will be undiminished, even though he is now barking his instructions from the dug-out rather than the epicentre of a midfield melee.

“I know what kind of manager Roy will be,” Morrison said with a laugh. “He was always someone who wanted things done his way and he would be the first to have a go if things weren’t right. I remember playing in a training game with him once and I gave the ball away and he gave me the biggest bollocking I’ve ever had.

“That gives me an insight into what the Sunderland lads are going through. Stephen Elliott told me that at first they were all scared of going to see Roy in his office. Now they all say how great he is and how much he is helping them.”

Keane insists his supposed training ground flare-up is a figment of Morrison’s over-active imagination — “Every player I worked with claims I’ve given them a rollocking — it’s nonsense,” he said — but his affection for his old team-mate is genuine enough.

“I suppose Clinton was one of the lads I did enjoy a bit of banter with,” he added, praise indeed from a man who once claimed not to have any friends in football. “He’s a good player and a good lad so we’ll have to watch out for him.”

The novelty factor of Keano the Boss is now wearing off, to be replaced by a genuine respect for his achievements in 15 breathless weeks on Wearside. A team who were drifting with the dead men when Niall Quinn decided to end his ill-fated dual-role as chairman-manager at the end of August has been revitalised under their new leader: having started the season with five straight defeats, Sunderland are now six points shy of the play-offs. This means a Premiership union with Keane’s mentor, Alex Ferguson, next year appears more likely as the weeks go by.

Morrison, for one, is unsurprised. “He’s just a natural leader,” he added.

“Anyone who watches football and saw him play and captain at Manchester United could tell that he was going to go to the very top. Sunderland are feeling the benefits now and they will be full of confidence because of him.”

But if Sunderland are buoyant, Palace — and Morrison are deflated.

Ambitions are perennially high at a club chaired by the inimitable Simon Jordan but at present promotion is a mere pipe dream. The implications are serious: Palace are in their last year of Premiership relegation parachute payments and stand to lose £8m if they fail to regain their top flight status. Morrison, meanwhile, has seen his international ambitions blunted by his decision to drop into the Championship while others, most notably Reading’s Kevin Doyle, have flourished at the higher level.

Morrison’s disgruntlement at being made to ply his trade in the second tier is palpable although he has no plans — not yet, at least — of jumping ship.

“I hate this league,” he said. “I don’t want to be here, I want to be in the Premiership because that’s where you test yourself and that’s where you play your best football.

“Nobody wants to stay in this division because it’s not where this club should be. We all have to look at ourselves and improve.”